EMC: It may be Saturday before all power restored

by Sarah Fay Campbell

Crews from Coweta-Fayette EMC are working around the clock to restore power, but some customers may not see their power restored until Friday, or even Saturday.

Meanwhile, Newnan Utilities has restored power to all of its customers, as of about 1 p.m., said Jeff Phillips, senior director of operations with Newnan Utilities.

Phillips is hoping that there won’t be any more outages on the system. “What we see as our next risk is the wind that is predicted for the afternoon,” he said. “With the ground being saturated” and limbs already damaged or moved by ice, the wind could cause more limbs to fall.

Last night at around 11 p.m. the EMC was down to only about 6,000 outages over its entire nine-county service area, said Mary Ann Bell, vice president of public relations and communications for Coweta Fayette EMC. “Then at 11, a main line went out over towards Tyrone and instantly we’re back up to 20,000,” Bell said.

At around 2:30, there were about 10,000 outages. “And we’ve had even more crews to come in today,” Bell said. “We have them from Mississippi and Alabama, Indiana and all parts of Georgia.” She said there are probably as many crews from other co-ops working to restore Coweta-Fayette EMC customers there are Coweta-Fayette employee crews.

“We are out here working 24 hours a day when weather permits, and it’s just a long process,” Bell said. “And we could possibly have some people that will not get their power back until Saturday.

“Hopefully we will pick up the largest amount today and tomorrow,” she said.

Bell was asked if she could tell which customers could be facing the longest outages. “Not really,” she said. But typically “it is people who live way out by themselves. Sometimes those are hard to get to because there are so many fallen limbs and debris."

Bell said she would likely have a better estimate later today.

Check back later today at Times-Herald.com for updates, and in tomorrow’s print and digital editions of the Newnan Times-Herald.